Monthly Archives: April 2009

This is our Nigella blend named for Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). Jekyll was a friend of Miss Willmott and possibly the most respected gardener of her time. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America and collaborated with English architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens on gardens for many of his houses.

Jekyll ran a garden center and bred many new plants and was a prolific writer of gardening articles and books, as well as a talented painter, photograph, designer, and craftswoman.

Miss Jekyll was also noted for her unique gardening practices. While planting bulbs she was reported to have dug a sizable hole, added some leaf mold and sand and then tossed in a freshly killed rabbit. She then counseled to seat the bulbs clockwise with a firm rightward twist before filling in the hole with topsoil. Four months later, she apparently had lilies just a hare under five feet tall.

One more interesting tidbit about Miss Jekyll is that her brother, Walter, was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who borrowed the Jekyll name for the title of his famous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde psychological thriller.